The Vidalia Control Panel

The graphical user interface to the Tor program is accessible through the Vidalia Control Panel (Figure 2), which you have already used to start Tor. Its other features will be explored below.

Double-click: to launch the Vidalia Control Panel

3.1 To view how your Tor connection is made

Click:

Figure 10: The Tor Network Map

The Tor Network Map displays all available Tor servers in the Relay list on the left. The Connection list, beneath the map, shows the names of the randomly-chosen Tor servers through which your anonymous connection will pass. If you click on one of the rows in this list, your actual route through the Tor network will be displayed on the map.

Note: This information is presented only to help demonstrate how Tor functions, so you do not have worry about understanding everything on this screen.

3.2 To view and configure the program settings of Tor and Vidalia

Click:

Figure 11: The Settings screen in the Vidalia Panel

In the General tab, you can specify whether Vidalia should launch automatically when Windows starts up, and whether it should then start Tor. You can leave both options selected as in Figure 11.

In the Appearance tab you can choose a language for the Vidalia interface. Other options in this window are described in the following sections.

3.3 To stop the Tor service from running

Click:

Figure 12: The Tor Status section - Tor is not running